Albuquerque's author, Joseph A. Haviland, is a native New Yorker with 10 siblings. He earned a BA in journalism from New York University. That was six years before the late Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014), his favorite actor, graduated from NYU with a BFA. Recently, Mr. Haviland and his wife opened a K-12 blended education private school, Frank Haviland Academy, in Panama City, Panama, now their home.